Book Notes: WE RIDE UPON STICKS by Quan Barry
WE RIDE UPON STICKS (Vintage, 2020), a novel about a women's varsity field hockey team, popped up on just about every search I conducted on "women's sports fiction." So, it was a must-read. I'm delighted that it lived up to the literary hype.
WE RIDE UPON STICKS
by Quan Barry
Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts (which in 1692 was Salem Village, site of the origins of the Salem Witch Trials), the story follows the Danvers High field hockey team as they discover that the dark impulses of their Salem forebears may be the key to a winning season.
The 1989 Danvers Falcons are on an unaccountable winning streak. Quan Barry weaves together the individual and collective journeys of this enchanted team as they storm their way to the state championship. Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza, whose bleached blond "Claw" sees and knows all, the DHS Falcons prove to be as wily and original as their North of Boston ancestors, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport.
BOOK NOTES
You can find plenty of professional reviews of WE RIDE UPON STICKS:
Here are Sport Stories Press's Book Notes:
"Yeah, don't freak out, but we were starting to think collectively. We had been for a while now, but it wasn't something we were ready to talk openly about just yet."
I loved the collective point-of-view, which was the perfect perspective for a sports team. Barry also easily drifted in and out of the collective to provide individual perspectives, histories, and motivations of each of the team's varsity players, which made this a very dynamic story.
"‘We ride upon sticks and are there presently,’ ” she added, using her Tituba islandy voice. Heather Houston was impressed. Sue had done her research. It was an actual quote from Tituba’s confession before the court of Samuel Sewall."
A main component of the story, woven in with the field hockey team's pursuit of the state championship game, is witchcraft, which the team uses to various extents to get what they want on and off the field.
Other Notes
Sport Stories Press champions writing by, for, and about sportswomen and amateur athletes, with a focus on an adult audience. So although this story is about high school women, this book is very much for an adult audience and, possibly with a lot of crossover appeal for a "new" or young adult audience.
There wasn't as much field hockey in the novel as I had anticipated/hoped for. Almost all of the story's plot lay outside of the field hockey field, with a sentence or two about the outcome of the season's games. The story focused much more on the girls themselves, their relationships with each other, their peers, and their families. This could have been a story about an academic club like a debate team as much as a sport team, except the title WE RIDE UPON STICKS wouldn't have been as apt.
I recommend this books for not just sports fans, but also for any lovers of literary fiction, particularly those who are drawn to a bit of witchcraft history and/or magical realism.
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